Mimi's Cafe

Restaurant: Mimi's Cafe

Location: 71st St, Tulsa, OK

Number and Size of Rings: 6 - 5 inchers or so
Cost: as a 99 cent upgrade on a side
Amazingly, Mimi's cafe offers onion rings as a side on their lunch menu. Also unexpected is how boring they are. I mean, normal packaged beer batter pub onion rings? Come on, Mimi's, you can do better than that! They are exactly the same as here and here and here and here. I guess onion rings are not very French? But maybe on Bourbon street in New Orlean's French Quarter they might have beer batter onion rings somewhere, although I've never seen them.

Red Robin onion ring tower

Restaurant: Red Robin

Location: 9810 Riverside Drive, Tulsa, OK 74137

Number and Size of Rings: 14 sorted by size
Cost: $7.99

This glorious whimsical Seussian tower of onion rings was sooo good. Especially with the campfire sauce, which tastes like mayo with bbq flavor in it. The rings are marvelous, but not quite as homemade tasting and flavorful as Biggs bbq (see two posts ago).

I was excited about ordering a burger with their "crispy onion straws", so I got the whiskey chicken burger that is supposed to look like this (according to their menu):

But, instead it looked like this with barely a single thread of soggy onion straw on it:Okay, so I got it for free because it was my birthday, but still, for $9.59? Come on, people. Someone at the restaurant could have at least said "Happy Birthday" once, or even greeted us within 10 minutes after seating us. But, the onion ring tower alone is keeping this restaurant alive.

Valley View frozen rings from Aldi

Brand: Valley View

Location: sold at Aldi stores

Number and Size of Rings: 1 lb (30 rings)
Cost: $1.19
I do believe I have found the WORLD's CHEAPEST onion rings. Aldi actually makes their own store brand of these pre-formed conglomerations that are meant to resemble onion rings. What really fascinates me about them is that they take about three minutes to make in the oven. And they are almost impossible to mess up when cooking them, because they will always taste weird, no matter what you do to them. When cooked to perfection, they taste kind of like bread and tap water. When slightly undercooked, they taste kind of mildly fishy like fake crab meat. When overcooked, they taste like extra crispy tap water. The great thing is, I've already served them at two meals, and I can probably serve them at two more. It is comforting to know that if my onion ring budget were .75 cents a week, I could survive on these.

Bigg's BBQ, Lawrence, KS

Restaurant: Bigg's BBQ

Location: 2429 Iowa, Lawrence, KS

Number and Size of Rings: 12 HUGE towering delights
Cost: $7.49 and worth every penny
A trip to Lawrence, Kansas is a mere 4 hour drive from the onion ring capitol of the world (Tulsa). After our fellow onion ring lovers, Tom and Erin, took us to Bigg's BBQ in their town, I have decided to adopt Bigg's BBQ into the onion ring hall of fame. These folks not only have a great huge tower of onion rings that are perfect and huge and delicious, but they also have an onion brick. How many places do you know that have onion rings done two ways on one menu? Well, we only got the regular onion rings, which were served in a tower with a trio of dipping sauces built into the base (ranch, thousand, and chili). We will have to drive the four hours back again to try the brick another day. Hopefully, my camera will cooperate better next time, but, you get the idea of their magnitude. They also have chocolate covered bacon for dessert. I'm not sure how I feel about the chocolate covered bacon, but the onion rings are a powerful force in the fried food world!(Aren't Tom and Erin cute with that chocolate covered bacon?)

Ted's Montana Grill, Kansas City

Restaurant: Ted's Montana Grill

Location: 1713 Village West Pkwy, Kansas City, KS

Number and Size of Rings: 10 rings
Cost: $6.00

These are called "Salt and Pepper" onion rings, but in my book they are fresh and delicious, almost like homemade. I don't think they actually have any more salt or pepper than any other onion ring I've had, but they had a great texture and crunch that makes me think they used a three-step process for breading them (flour, egg, breadcrumbs). I LOVE onion rings that are freshly made, not from a bag. I also love the conservation-minded restaurant concept of Ted's and their paper straws, etc. And any restaurant that will let you use buffalo on any sandwich on the menu is a winner. Above is the picture from the restaurant website. Below is the night vision picture I took with my cell phone when I ordered the rings as a side dish. I'm not having much luck remembering to take my camera out to eat lately.